Which blog site to use, and my site

Rere · Mar 13, 2009

Hi All,

Just finished my website a couple weeks ago. I've been doing a little research and am hearing that a blog can help your main website. So since my husband and I are just beginning our adventure of work-camping, I'm now thinking of doing a blog about it with some photography undertones.

Does anyone out there have thoughts on this? And what blogging sites would you recommend. They say that instead of creating another website, that blogging is more useful in generating people to your main website.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the subject of the blog, and if it generates more traffic my way---well that would be great.

Also, in a blog, I'm assuming that one can kind of add subtopics too, is that right?

Any info on this matter or comments about my site is much appreciated.

Rere

Chris Stegner · Mar 13, 2009

Setting up a blog is pretty easy... Provided your ISP supports them, and which one.

First off, I'm assuming you want to set one up on your own domain, yes, no?

If you indeed do want to set up a blog on your domain

http://www.yourdomain.com/yourblog

or even

http://www.yourblog.yourdomain.com

Then you could check to see if your internet provider supports WordPress. I have all my sites on GoDaddy.com and they do indeed run WordPress.

WordPress is very easy to setup and maintain. And the cool thing is that there are 1,000s of free plugins and addons, some specifically for Photography.

Our company website is based on a WordPress blog:

http://www.whitedesignstudio.com

Look for an entry with "extended gallery" on it like this, and click the numbers. I really like the way this plugin treats photos. I know a lot of people use it, so I assume people like it.

Portfolio | Interactive | Battelle Labs | White Design Studio

Maybe I've gone on to long, not knowing what your plans are, but I really like working with WordPress and have been getting into it a lot lately.

Here's a "demo" site I'm working on for my Church. I put this together in less than an hour from scratch. Keep in mind, not all the links will work and it's a work in progress. http://bluegrassphotography.net/FCCTestBlog/

Lastly, check out WordPress › Blog Tool and Publishing Platform

Then again, there's tons of places to host FREE blogs:

https://www.blogger.com/start

LiveJournal.com - Start a Free Blog / Journal Today

And WordPress has Freebies as well:

The Features You’ll Love « WordPress.com

Rere · Mar 14, 2009

Thanks for the info, Chris. I'll check out your links.

I was thinking of using an independent site for my blog and not my website or even my host server. Just from the little I've read, I thought that this was the way to go, but since I'm new to all this, that may not be correct.

So if I'm reading you right, with Wordpress you use your website's host server, right? Guess I'll have to do a bit more research. Do you know of any books, articles, etc. that might help clarify it a bit for me?

Thanks so much for your response

chadsdphoto · Mar 21, 2009

I use Blogger for three blogs. From what I understand it and WordPress are pretty similar. It's very easy to use and when I decided to have a custom URL I went right through Blogger, which purchased a domain name for me from GoDaddy.com.

Examples at www.dakotagraph.com, www.cinemasouthdakota.blogspot.com, www.chadsconcertpix.blogspot.com.

Cool G5 · Mar 21, 2009

You can start a blog very easily now a days that too in a few minutes.

If you don't want any hassles just signup at
www.blogger.com
WordPress.com » Get a Free Blog Here

& you can get started to post as soon as you signup. It's free but not reliable.

The other way round is get domain & hosting space from a host & start your blog.

In this method, you have total control over your blog, you can tweak everything to suit your needs.
I recommend www.whost.in | whost.in - Fast, Reliable, Affordable Indian Web Hosting which is a good host.

Rere · Mar 21, 2009

Thanks for the info and links. But I've heard good things about Blogger,which is the one I'll probably use.

I know this is probably elementary, but what is the difference between twitter and blogging? Is twitter a form of blogging?

Thanks

Cool G5 · Apr 12, 2009

Rere said:
Thanks for the info and links. But I've heard good things about Blogger,which is the one I'll probably use.

I know this is probably elementary, but what is the difference between twitter and blogging? Is twitter a form of blogging?

Thanks

Twitter is not blogging service, it is defined as micro blogging where people post answer to a simple question "What are you doing?".

Twitter can also be used to voice out personal opinions, share interesting links with the world, publicize one's blog/website etc.

Rere · Apr 12, 2009

Thanks for the info Cool G5. I intend to begin a blog in the next couple of weeks.

Rere

modlife · Apr 12, 2009

I use wordpress for Atlanta Photographers and my Bella Sorrisa Blog

You can see how drastically different 2 sites can be using CSS templates by looking at them both.

Dwig · Apr 12, 2009

Chris Stegner posted some real good info.

Last year I changed my personal website (HappyThursday.com) over to a WordPress driven site. Previously, it was a mostly HTML site leveraging some CSS and a few Flash components.

My experience supports Chris's recommendation of WordPress. I can add that Yahoo's Small Business hosting supports WordPress.

If you host your own WP blog, it doesn't have to take over the site. It can run underneath a top level page as a sort of sub-site. You can also have multiple WP blogs running on the same domain. My personal site runs two WP installations, one public and one my private experimental installation. It also hosts conventional HTML pages for another domain and has several sections that are conventional HTML that are accessed from links in the WP portion.

caveman · Apr 24, 2009

Blogs are a kind of CMS so therefore are easy to maintain too. You can add pages as well as new posts with a few clicks rather than learning html which can get kinda scary. Just remember to post relevant news which people will want to read and you should find yourself with a good fan base which will help to drive traffic to your main site as well as provide nice links.